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by William Ford (Author)
When thirteen-year-old Alfonso XI seized power from his corrupt regents in 1325, few believed the boy-king would survive a year against Castile's ruthless nobility. Instead, he would rule for twenty-five remarkable years, transforming a fractured kingdom into the dominant power of the Iberian Peninsula.
This compelling biography reveals the extraordinary story of medieval Spain's most effective and enigmatic monarch. A brilliant military strategist who defeated a massive Muslim invasion at the Battle of Río Salado, Alfonso expanded Christian territory and secured control of the strategic Strait of Gibraltar. A visionary administrator, he created sophisticated legal codes and governance systems that laid foundations for the future Spanish state. Yet this same calculating ruler conducted a scandalous decades-long affair with his mistress Leonor de Guzmán, fathering ten children while largely ignoring his Portuguese queen and legitimate heir.
Drawing on rich primary sources, this meticulously researched narrative brings to vivid life the political intrigue, religious fervor, and cultural dynamics of fourteenth-century Iberia. It reconstructs a pivotal moment when the medieval world was giving way to early modern institutions and identities-changes that Alfonso himself did much to advance.
Discover how this remarkable ruler-ruthless yet innovative, traditional yet forward-thinking-permanently altered the course of Spanish history while embodying the complex reality of power in the late Middle Ages. This book offers both a gripping royal biography and a fresh understanding of how modern Europe began to emerge from its medieval foundations.
